The desecrated Grant Park looks like a rock ‘n’ roll battlefield — the fields are muddy and bare, waste is strewn about and a stench of stagnant water and stale beer lingers in the air.

With Sunday thunderstorms flooding the last day of Lollapalooza, it will be weeks — and tens of thousands of dollars — before the aftermath of the festival is repaired, officials said.

“This is probably one of the worst [aftermaths],” said Bob O’Neill, president of the Grant Park Conservancy. “The turf damage is substantial, bushes were trampled ... there’s a little bit of damage to some gardens.”

The good news is that C3 (the company who puts on the fest) is liable to repair the park. The bad news is that we imagine this "repair" will take a loonnnnnnnnnggggggggg time. This isn't to blame the people at Lollapalooza, it's just a risk of having a big event in the park and obviously not being able to control the weather.

29 comments:

Anonymous
said...

This is why they need a better contract that gives the city compensation for how long the park is out of commission. If "renting" the park for three days is estimated to cost $2 million ( a number cited by Jim DeRogatis in his coverage), shouldn't Lolla be paying instead for the amount of time the true owners of Grant Park (the people of Chicago) are deprived of using it? Cause this is gonna take weeks if not months.

Look, I enjoy Lolla as much as the next guy, butthis, in particular, is the issue with the city's sweetheart deal with Lolla. We don't collect our fair share of taxes for this event and we are left with a park in shambles.

Sure, C3 doesn't control the weather, and sure, they are going to clean it up... but you're right, it will take a lonnnnnng time. And in the meantime, every citizen of Chicago is deprived of OUR park for longer than just one weekend. And what do we get out of it? A couple million for the Parkways Foundation. Just doesn't seem right.

Its still worth it - for a whole new generation of kids Chicago is the cool place to go, that will pay back ten fold if they all take a trip here sometime, go see a show and hit the bars. I love the idea of a major rock festival smack dab in the middle of the city. You couldn't do this in central park.

This event generates more money for the city (and its surrounding business) more than anyone here will ever know. It brings people to Chicago as a main summer attraction every year from all over the nation. It continually has progessed year after year with thankfully no real troubles like theft, injuries, fights, etc. This is basically a gold mine for Chic ago and its citizens.....

Grass grows back...get over it.Also, to all these people who desparatly need grant park in their life everyday---I smell a little bit of embellishment. I never hear anyone talk about GP like its central park but now all of a sudden everyone is up in arms. Like I staed earlier, grass grows back and Lolla helps keep our neighborhood on the damn map. Lolla 1, Nimbys 0

Its not like the entire park is out of commission, just several large fields. Also, strongly agree with 8:46 about the long-term benefits of having folks see Chicago in the great context that Lolla provides.

Still troubled by the sweetheart deal, any involvement of the Daley crime family, and proceeds/funds going off balance sheet to the seemingly private/semi-private "foundation".

How about some actual numbers relative to how much the city makes, as opposed to some words "more money than anyone here will ever know". For some of us, Grant Park is an integral part of our everyday lives, and right now I cannot even walk near a large part of it. That is not the smell of embellishment, but rather the raw sewage emanating from what were ball parks. What about long term tree damage from heavy machinery back and forth over roots? How are all these costs going to be recouped from C3? You're right, the grass will grow back; but think some growing up also needs to be done by people who think that a weekend Lolla is what puts the South Loop on the map...

Tree roots were not damaged and frankly I am losing faith in humanity if people honestly feel that trees are going to die because the ground is soggy and smells. Good Lord help us all.

If a tree literally dies , please take a picture and post here as a blog entry. I will personally donate $500 to this blog if that happens. You should put this effort towards the rebuild of Wabash.....the park will be fine, friend.

"What about long term tree damage from heavy machinery back and forth over roots?"

Trees don't give a shit. Mature root systems are incredibly vast and a large part could completely die without hurting the part above the ground. You're not gonna kill a tree unless it's freshly planted and you ram a bulldozer into it. And when a mature tree does die it's usually because of disease.

I hate to pick on people this morning but I just cant take it anymore.

Anon 6:24-- please list the park or parks you stroll through that literally emanate a smell of dog feces. My "gut feeling" tells me that youre the one full of shit, not the parks. You should focus your angst on more realistic issues like leprachauns or flying piglets

Wow. There's a high level of hostility around here towards anyone who disagrees with the general gist of this site's viewpoint.

I'm not a Lollapalooza fan, but I think it does bring some business and visibility to the city. In general, I'd say it's probably pretty lopsided - the city gets compensated for damage, and a little extra for the parks, but the festival and music/entertainment industry makes off with gigantic profits. Personally, I'd like to see it go away, but that's not going to happen.

As far as trees and plants getting damaged by the crowd, Google soil compaction. There will likely be long term damage. Again, I'm not 100% against any of this, but crowds that size year after year will cause an impact.

And check out the little park they put in on Dearborn in the heart of Printer's Row. They're on the second round of plantings of the shrubs as dog urine has completely killed many of them, and this second round is dying as well. Just look at the planting areas adjacent to the Transportation building. The plants are completely gone, drowned in urine from dogs urgently peeing as they leave their hi rise kennel. They had to put in additional fencing after the completion of the park to keep dogs from digging the hell out of the plants. There's a lot of irresponsible dog owners out there (though of course everyone here is 100% responsible with their dogs 100% of the time. Of course).

PLEASE just please go move to Schuamburg already. The constant whining about dog pee "how dare they walk on MY park and throw parties" are as much a black eye to the rep of this city as the crime.

Chicago is a vibrant, welcoming city. Guess what...Lolla will be here for years and I am glad Chicago has the privlege of host such a great event. yet-- there are still some people out there that complain about mudd and hijack the blog entry ito a conversation about pee.

I am serious...please, I'm begging you....please just move to Romeoville/schuamburg/plainfield already. The city is OBVIOUSLY not for you..

Thank You Jeff. It's amazing people would complain about a festival that brings a ton of money to the city and pays to clean up the park, when parks in Printer's Row get ruined by dog owners within 15 seconds.

There really should be a dog tax in the city. The amount of re-planting, cleaning up dog crap on the street, and the noise they make take up so much of the city's time and money. And I own a dog.

Man, calm down. I'm just expressing an opinion. Does everyone need to be 100% pro-Lollapalooza? I'm OK with it except for the fact that I think the city is getting the short end of the stick. Really, that's what it boils down to for me.

If the city got more money from it, I'd be 100% for Lollapalooza. Can you not understand this position?

I was born in the city and have lived here for 35 of my 40 years (Lived for a while out of state back in the 90s). I know what the city is about.

Pretty silly that you'd go on about the welcoming nature of the city, then implore me to move away because I'm not 100% in agreement with you about a privately run concert.

My comment about the park was brought on by your comment about dogs/parks.

You quickly go from sounding like a reasonable guy, pointing out the high level of hostility in the responses, though snidely saying that it is just directed toward anyone who goes against the SLoopin grain, next displaying your insider knowledge of the music industry's revenue, then your understanding of the impact of soil compaction, and finally straight on to clearly showing that you are a dog hater!

Or maybe you just don't think dogs belong in high rises, because they are damaging the landscaping of your building, due to their owners choice of allowing them to urinate as soon as they are out the front door. True, not all dog owners are as conscientious as others, and many plantings in Chicago are up against several types of environmental assault, not only from dog urine, but also from human urine (yes I've caught them in the act!!) not to mention the salt used all winter long year after year.

And to address what some others have said about the smell of dog waste, the fact is something could be done to help lower the amount of odor from dog waste that is properly picked up and thrown away. There exist covered waste receptacles, such as the one my condo association thoughtfully installed on our campus last year.

Another fact is that there are 100% responsible dog owners, and not just SLoopin readers, as well as the irresponsible ones. Indeed I should count as >100% responsible because I often clean up after those irresponsible ones, and I am not whining about it whatsoever, I'm just sick of people hating dogs and dog owners because of the irresponsible ones, so I try to do my part to clean up 'an extra' or two when I can. People are thinking about that problem, because there as @$$holes everywhere that happen to own dogs, not just in Chicago, check out 'South Poop' http://southloopdogpoop.wordpress.com/

You quickly go from sounding like a reasonable guy, pointing out the high level of hostility in the responses, though snidely saying that it is just directed toward anyone who goes against the SLoopin grain, next displaying your insider knowledge of the music industry's revenue, then your understanding of the impact of soil compaction, and finally straight on to clearly showing that you are a dog hater!

Or maybe you just don't think dogs belong in high rises, because they are damaging the landscaping of your building, due to their owners choice of allowing them to urinate as soon as they are out the front door. True, not all dog owners are as conscientious as others, and many plantings in Chicago are up against several types of environmental assault, not only from dog urine, but also from human urine (yes I've caught them in the act!!) not to mention the salt used all winter long year after year.

And to address what some others have said about the smell of dog waste, the fact is something could be done to help lower the amount of odor from dog waste that is properly picked up and thrown away. There exist covered waste receptacles, such as the one my condo association thoughtfully installed on our campus last year.

Another fact is that there are 100% responsible dog owners, and not just SLoopin readers, as well as the irresponsible ones. Indeed I should count as >100% responsible because I often clean up after those irresponsible ones, and I am not whining about it whatsoever, I'm just sick of people hating dogs and dog owners because of the irresponsible ones, so I try to do my part to clean up 'an extra' or two when I can. People are thinking about that problem, because there as @$$holes everywhere that happen to own dogs, not just in Chicago, check out 'South Poop' - http://southloopdogpoop.wordpress.com/

You don't need insider knowledge of the music industry to know that lots of money is made by Lollapalooza.

My point is that I do not believe that the city benefits enough from having the festival here. As I said, I don't dislike the festival itself (in fact, I went to it last year and saw DEVO, Hot Chip and Lady Gaga), just the bad deal the city gets from it. I believe it to be a net negative for the city, but if the city got more, then I'd be in favor of it all the way.

Soil compaction is not some arcane bit of knowledge either.

I don't hate dogs. I hate that the brand new park in my neighborhood is in bad shape because there's far too many dogs pissing on it every single day. Really, go check out the park I'm talking about... the one with the little fountain across from Kasey's on Dearborn. There's a bunch of dead patches of bare earth where there used to be plants and plenty of skeletal dead bushes burned away by urine. They die one by one, from the outside in as the dogs take their turns on the nearest remaining ones.

I can't believe that Sloopin is continuing to allow this asinine back forth between two individuals, that in all likely hood wouldn't speak to each other this way face to face. Opposing views are a good thing, but this is just silly...

The $85 million figure cited in the CCB story is a little suspect, if only because it comes from the organization that's benefitting from the donation from Lolla. Simple math tells you that means they're figuring on anyone attending spending about $315 per day, and the story says that's at hotels, restaurants and clubs, (that's if it did indeed sell out, I think it did, meaning a total of 270,000, or 90,000 per day).

While I'm sure some people did spend that much, a lot of people attending are Chicagoans, so they're not gonna be spending anything on hotels. It would be interesting to know exactly how many people attending are from Chicago. But my opinion is that number is very inflated.

As for it being in Grant Park, I think it's a bad idea. The New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Fest is held at the fairgrounds there. Wish we had an option like that here.

But in case it's not, there are signs in many gardens (read the ones along the neighborhood wall on State St. just north of Roosevelt) asking for owners to not allow their pets to pee/poop on their flowers because it can be a problem.

Before calling me a dog hater, I'm only of the opinion that our city isn't a giant urinal. If we see human urine along the street (which is not an uncommon occurrence), we are grossed out because it's urine...but it's okay when it's dog urine...? Doesn't make sense exactly. Just be a little more awareness is all I'm asking for.

I have a 3 year old who wants to explore the many great parks this city has to offer, but it's a challenge when I'm on constant watch for dog poo and bum urine.